constult

English

Etymology

From Latin con- (“together”) + stultus (“foolish; fool”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: kənstŭlt', IPA^(key): /kənˈstʌlt/
• Rhymes: -ʌlt

Verb

constult (third-person singular simple present constults, present participle constulting, simple past and past participle constulted)

1. (obsolete) (intransitive) To act together in a foolish or stupid manner, to become as great a fool as those around, to behave as much in a foolish or stupid manner as those around.
   • 1594, [William] Kemp, A Knacke to knowe a Knaue, London: imprinted by Richard Iones, pages [unpaged; lines 1365–1366]:

     Now let vs conſtult among our ſelues,
     How to miſbehaue our ſelues to the Kings worship,
     […]

   • 1630, John Taylor, “The Worlds eighth Wonder”, in All the Workes of Iohn Taylor, the Water Poet, being 63 in number, collected into one volum, [sine loco]: [sine editio], page 67:

     Some Engliſh Gentlemen with him conſulted
     And he as nat’rally with them conſtulted : […]

   • 1660 [1659], John Gauden, Κακουργοι Sive Medicastri: Slight Healings of Publique Hurts, London: published by Andrew Crook, page 91:

     Phyſitians after this courſe muſt turn very fools, and become paraſites to putrefactions ; if they dare not own, or cannot attaque either the ſourſe and head of the diſeaſe, or the ſtreams and potency of it, what do they meet and ſit and conſult (or rather conſtult) together?

Translations

To play the fool together

Further reading

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “†conˈstult”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
• Ammon Shea: Satisdiction: One man’s journey into all the words he’ll ever need. London/New York/Toronto/Camberwell (VIC)/New Delhi/Rosedale (NZ)/Johannesburg (RSA): Penguin Books 2010, →ISBN (ebook).
• Joseph T. Shipley: Dictionary of Early English. 1st edition, Lanham (MD)/Plymouth (UK): Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2014, →ISBN, page 171–172.
• Steven Poole: A Word for Every Day of the Year. London: Quercus Edition Ltd. 2019, →ISBN (ebook).